Darren Jordon was - for a time - the deputy on both Breakfast and the One.
Yes - at one time c.2000 Darren was deputy on Breakfast and George was deputy on the One. Then when George moved to BBC Four News in 2002, Darren moved across to take his place on the One, and Bill Turnbull took his place on Breakfast.
I used to like Darren Jordon. Is he still with Al Jazeera?
In terms of Sophie Raworth, she didn't start out on the BBC News Channel. After presenting regional news (in the Yorkshire region, I think) she graduated to Breakfast News in the late 1990s, before moving to the Six in 2003 and she's stayed on BBC One bulletins ever since. She may have presented on the News Channel in more recent times, but I'm not sure when. She didn't start out as a rolling news presenter, anyway.
The only time I can recall her on the News Channel (or it may have been News 24 at the time) was co-presenting a few Monday afternoons with Jon Sopel (in addition to doing the One) 10+ years ago. If she has done any 'News Channel only' work a double digit number of times I'd be surprised
Sophie was never official deputy on the One. Upon leaving Breakfast in November 2002, she took over as co-anchor of the Six with George Alagiah in January 2003. She may have covered the One in Anna Ford's absence during this time (like when she famously took over half way through a bulletin when Anna's voice gave way) but she was never the deputy. She stayed on the Six until 2005 when she went on maternity, until 2006 when she returned and officially took over the One full time following Anna's retirement. Nowadays though she spends most of her time covering the Six/Ten more than anything.
I see the name change is still a great success - the channel’s been ‘BBC News’ now probably longer than it was ‘News 24’ but you still get many in the public calling it News 24.
I see the name change is still a great success - the channel’s been ‘BBC News’ now probably longer than it was ‘News 24’ but you still get many in the public calling it News 24.
It's a generational thing.
My dad, who's 53, still calls it News 24. My cousin, who's nearly 17, has never even heard of News 24.
I still don't fully grasp the methodology behind the channel's name change in 2008. Officially, they just wanted everything to be branded "BBC News" - but in order to refer to specific outlets, it developed into "BBC News Channel". This in turn, gets shortened to "News Channel" or just "NC".
Quite how that is any different to "BBC News 24", "News 24" or "N24" is beyond me. If they hoped that it would just be known as BBC News - they were sadly mistaken. If anything, I think "News 24" was actually a more memorable name - it did what it said on the tin - provided news 24-hours a day. "News Channel" is bland and could apply to any broadcaster really. It says something when the News 24 brand lasted 11 years and we've had 12 years of "News Channel" - yet News 24 still persists. If the rebrand had worked, News 24 should be long forgotten.
Old habits die hard. (Older) people still refer to ITV by long-gone contractor names. And back in the day, the cliched "what's your favourite radio station" line to competition winners would frequently get a response of the heritage "Radio [whatver]" rather than the "[Whatever] FM" that had been in use for 10 years.
Coronavirus is certainly making my dreams even weirder. Last night I dreamt Maxine Mawhinney was back at the BBC, presenting Breakfast with Simon McCoy in my local park, with the News 24 graphics from 2007!
